Digging For Life
by musingwoman
Summary: A Helicopter is missing, a child's life at stake. Can Owen find him in time? Rated T because of lost child theme and Owen swearing. No change there then! Reference to 'Something in the Water' by Trevor Baxendale. Buy and Read! Revised! Please review!
1. Missing

Missing

5am on a cold March Morning. Owen and Jack stood looking out over a rather boring ploughed field. Green spikes were beginning to show as the crop started its journey towards harvest.

"You sure this is the right field?" Said Owen,

"Yep, 3am this morning a private helicopter with two adults and a child on board reported an object flying straight towards them. Then the chopper disappeared from the radar screen at exactly this spot." said Jack

"We recorded rift activity?"

"Strangely no, and there are no energy readings either."

"OK lets walk it one more time, then I'm off to smell Ianto's coffee."

Jack and Owen arrived back at the Hub just in time for the first cup of Ianto's coffee.

Tosh listened to their tale of the helicopter and started running more detailed scans of the area. She was using a programme that monitored all radio and microwave signals. As well as processing all the information that had been gathered overnight, it was processing in real time. She was listening on her head phones for any anomalous sounds. She thought she heard a child 's voice and adjusted the volume and clarity.

"Jack! Listen!"

"Daddy, Daddy! wake up Daddy! The helicopter has landed and it's all dark!" The voice was a whispering cry drifting away to nothing.

"Tosh can you locate where that's coming from?"

Tosh began typing on her keyboard as she nodded, then shook her head. "Sorry Jack, it faded too quickly and the type of wave is not a familiar one to us – I've lost it"

"Damn – well do what you can to locate it, that child sounded so lost....."

The team split to various tasks on Jacks orders. Ianto researched the area looking for any rift like activity, myths, legends, disappearances. Gwen researched the people in the helicopter, checking what the family had been told about the disappearance. Owen researched their medical records, checking for medical problems that might account for the pilot seeing things, although he doubted that he would find any disappearing disease, but Jack was obviously disturbed by the message, so had got them all working on it.

Tosh continued with her monitoring and scanning.

By ten they were in the boardroom, ready to report.

Gwen started, she put three pictures up on the monitor.

"Peter Jenkins, Helicopter pilot. Ex RAF, veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, highly experienced, used to flying under stress. Unlikely to be phased by an object flying towards them, should have found taking evasive action quite easy."

"Marcus Smith, CEO of a local internet company, married with 2 children, one of whom was flying with him. "

"Robbie Smith, Aged 4, son of Marcus and Mary Smith, little brother to Angela, he liked cars and football."

"The helicopter trip was part treat for Robbie, but they were actually flying down from Scotland, and were doing so at night because they had been delayed by fog in Glasgow."

Owen was next. " Basically all their health records are clear. Peter Jenkins has good psychological records from the RAF. He was in highly stressful situations but dealt with them well and has shown good ability to adapt to civilian life, no indications of Post Traumatic Stress."

Ianto "That area is one of the least active areas for myths, legends, disappearances ever in Wales. Its always been too far off the beaten track. It is however only half a mile from the bog where Saskia Harden lived."

The team looked up startled, and Tosh shivered remembering her dip in the bog and the corpse she bought back with her.

"Doesn't mean this is anything to do with water hags" said Jack "Nevertheless, Tosh check for rift activity over the bog."

Finally Tosh reported back. There had been 3 messages. 2 repeated the first, she played back the third. The sound of a child crying and weeping filled the boardroom. Tosh switched it off. The team sat in silence.

Jack looked at Tosh, eyebrow raised in question.

"Sorry about that" Said Tosh "but I couldn't keep it to myself. I have located the source, but only to the field where the helicopter went down, sometimes it comes from one area and then from another."


	2. Owen is Afraid

Owen is Afraid

Owen found himself back at the field, he couldn't get the sound of the child's crying out of his head. The thought of such a small child disappearing into the darkness, like he had done when he died, was too much to bear. He thought that If he came back to the field he might be able to do something. Tosh had given him a mobile receiver tuned to the wave frequency of the transmission they had heard. He had walked up and down the field six or seven times and it was now getting dark and a cold mist was drifting across the field from the marsh.

He had heard Robbie several times, crying and asking for his Daddy, the last time the small voice had sounded tired and weak. Owen hadn't heard it for the last ten minutes.

Tosh had been right, the voice was coming from the field but, as soon as he thought he had located the source, it started to come from somewhere else.

Now he stood at the edge of the field, frustration and hopelessness coursed through him. He cursed loudly, throwing a stick he was carrying as far and as hard as he could. He watched it bounce and twist up and down through the lowering mist. Then he turned to go, although he didn't sleep any more, with the mist coming up there was no point trying to search further tonight, and although he didn't feel the cold, that only made him more vulnerable to frost bite if it froze.

Heading back to his sports car he saw a tall figure looming out of the mist, seeming to drift towards him from the direction of the bog. With memories of water hags in his mind he drew his gun and aimed, whilst still moving quickly towards the car. The figure kept on coming – he reached his sports car and turned to get in. The figured drifted closer, he turned the gun on it and prepared to fire should it get too close. The mist swirled around it, seeming to make it disappear one minute and reappear the next. Damn it, he had dropped his keys. He felt around with his foot, hearing the keys tinkle on the tarmac, he squatted down keeping his eye on the figure and scrabbled around with his spare hand until he found the key.

The figure spoke

"Need a hand Owen?"

"For fucks sake Jack you scared the shit out of me!"

"Sorry it was kinda to hard to resist, what with the mist and the twilight. Tosh said you had come out here, I just wanted to make sure you were OK"

"Jack there is a lost kid in that field, going through God knows what and you are playing practical Jokes?"

"Have you been hearing him still?"

"Up until ten minutes ago, he sounded sleepy, so I'm hoping he's nodded off."

Jack nodded " watching you throw that stick gave me an idea, I think I know a man who may be able to help."


	3. Prison Break

Prison Break

Owen followed Jack back into Cardiff and into Splott, finally pulling up outside a residential home. Owen knew it as a last home for some of the older vagrants from the streets of Cardiff. Owned by a charitable trust it had been rebuilt a couple of years ago. It was now all en suite but the architecture was reminiscent of the more twee supermarkets. It had lost its friendly character in the effort to meet government guidelines on room size and facilities. In order to reduce costs two homes had been amalgamated and it now had around eighty residents.

"What are we doing here Jack?"

"I've come to talk to an old friend"

He rang the bell, ten minutes later he rang it for the tenth time, finally a carer spoke to him over the intercom "Who is it ? what do you want at this time of night?"

"I need to speak to Davie Roberts, its urgent."

"Who wants to speak to him?"

"Tell him its Cap'n Jack Harkness, I need his help"

"Come back in the morning – he's already gone to bed"

Jack tried for another five minutes, but the carer wouldn't let him in.

"Jack, if we wait till morning it might be too late" Owen had no idea what the man could do for him, but he was willing to clutch at any straw to save little Robbie

Jack looked at him and nodded his head towards the back of the building, they walked around the outside, all the windows were either shut or too small to get through. Even Owen, though wiry couldn't manage. They came to a fire exit, but it could only be opened from the inside. Jack took a small cutter from his pocket, it had an alien edge to it that would cut through the wire embedded in the glass of the door. He made a hole and then with difficulty reached through and pulled the bar up and towards the door. Fortunately it was not alarmed. They went inside, pulling the door to behind them.

"OK Jack which room is he in?

"No idea"

"Great"

They walked quietly along the dimly lit corridors. The sound of snoring and sighing came from behind the doors, interrupted by the odd flush of a toilet. Strangely there was very little smell, Owen had expected an old lady smell of talc and incontinence, but really all he could smell was new carpet and paint. The names of the residents were on the door and they each had a Yale lock, some doors decorated to personalise them. They came to a pleasant kitchen diner with a sitting area and TV at one end. A carer was dozing in front of the TV, and they sneaked quietly behind him, to come face to face with a tiny old lady with a Zimmer frame walking along the corridor towards them.

"Jack is that you?"

"Zelma? Ssh! You'll wake the carer" Jack whispered. He lent forward to kiss Zelma on the cheek, but she twisted quickly and made sure it landed on her lips. "You don't get away from me that easily!" She said. "Up to no good I bet"

The carer started and looked round. Jack and Owen flattened themselves against the wall, Zelma opened the door next to her and gestured them in, closing the door behind them

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your boyfriend?"

Owen grimaced, but Jack grinned. "Zelma this is Owen Harker, Owen this is Zelma, former dancer and striptease artiste from the 1940s."

"Good times Jack, they won't come again," she sighed.

Jack told her they were looking for Davie Roberts. She frowned a bit, and then nodded. "Second floor, he keeps trying to escape so they put him up there in the hope he might stay put a bit. Not sure which room though."

Jack hugged her and kissed her soundly. She grinned and patted him on the cheek, looking after him wistfully, boy had he taught her some moves. Good Times, good times.

Owen looked a little startled at the look on her face, catching a glimpse of the sultry beauty she once had been.

They crept along and up the stairs. This floor was in darkness, a few emergency lights. The atmosphere was different, the fixtures and fittings a little askew as though they had been less well thought out. Some were distinctly odd, a newspaper stuck into a flower pot,

a chocolate bar on a seat. They had come through a a door locked with a keypad, but Jack's wrist strap had taken care of that. Davie Roberts' room was the third on the right.

Jack knocked softly and tried the handle. It was unlocked. Davie Roberts was sat on the bed, staring out of the window opposite.

"Hello Jack, I've been waiting for you" Startled Jack said "How on earth...."

Davie laughed. "Got Ya! Zelma phoned up on the internal line! Now what can I do for you?"

As he turned round, Owen saw he was wearing large tinted glasses. Glaucoma he diagnosed.

Jack explained what had happened, how they couldn't locate where the voice was actually coming from. Davie nodded as though he understood. "Right no time to be wasted if there's a child lost, I can find it" He said confidently. He stood up slowly and with a creak, as though in fact they did have all the time in the world. With bowed knees he hobbled to the wardrobe, took out a coat and fetched two sticks. He saw Owen looking at him and grinned. "Time was when I could outrun Jack here. Not that I always wanted to mind."

"How long is it now since John....." Jack asked

"Died do you mean? He didn't. Bastard ran off with a milkman." He looked at Owen. "Never trust a toyboy!, that's why I ended up here. Self neglect and depression. Now I'm better they don't believe it so they've put me up here in the locked wing."

"Have you got any equipment?" Owen asked, Davie Roberts looked at Jack

"You haven't told him have you?"

"Told me what?"

"You'll see"

They managed to sneak out of the home. Zelma was keeping the carer occupied in the dining area, telling him tales of her lurid past, which the carer obviously didn't believe, judging by the patronising replies she was giving. Zelma winked at them as they crept by.


	4. Found Out

Found Out

Davie insisted on travelling in Owen's sports car with the top down, saying that he deserved a treat after spending weeks on the locked wing. He refused to answer Owen's questions, just sitting in enigmatic silence. Owen drove fast, they had wasted a lot of time trying to spring Davie from the home. It was now 20 hours since the helicopter disappeared. Owen was terrified for the little lad who sounded so brave over the headphones.

They arrived at the ploughed field, as Owen had predicted earlier the mist had cleared and a hoar frost sparkled on the hedges and sprouting green shoots. He ran round the back of the car to Davie's door and opened it. Davie looked at him uncomprehendingly. "Who are you? What am I doing in this car? What's going on?""

"Jack!" Owen called "We got a problem. Sod it, the old farts confused, what use is he going to be."

He left Davie to Jack and pulled on Tosh's headphones and started listening in. He couldn't hear any voices, but if he listened hard he thought he could hear breathing and a light snore. Could be an animal but somehow it sounded like a small child sleeping.

He turned to look at the other two. Oh ugh that was gross. Jack was Kissing Davie. Owen watched in a kind of fascinated revulsion. As he looked he saw a golden glow emanating from Jack and passing into the old man. As he watched the old man's face grew calmer, he took off his glasses and his eyes came into focus. Jack drew back.

"Jack, how lovely to see you! What are we doing out here....... ah, I remember."

he looked at Owen and grinned. "You drive too fast young man ...enjoyed every minute., right lets get going."

Jack helped him out of the car and using his sticks Davie hobbled to the edge of the field.

He surveyed it. Then he plucked a V shaped twig from the hedge, and discarding his sticks he walked forward, holding the twig balanced carefully across his open palms.

Owen realised what was happening and turned round to confront Jack.

"A ,a,a Dowser! You bought a fucking dowser to find the kid? Sometimes I really do wonder if you are from planet stupid Jack, to be taken in by such a charlatan. We could have tried all sorts of tech and strategies and you bring in a con man. I should have known, you are one yourself"

Davie turned round, nearly losing his balance as he did so. "You need to keep him quiet Jack, I need to concentrate. The Child is very close by, but the exact location is hard to find, and the energy from Owen is all over the field. The walking dead always disturb the natural forces.."

"How did he know I was dead? He hasn't touched me – you told him didn't you?"

Jack shook his head, speaking quietly, "I've known Davie for fifty years, he used to help us find hidden alien tech, and lost bodies. He is amazing. You have to trust me, and him. Just give us half an hour. If he doesn't find anything we will try something else."

Owen glared and went to sit in his car.

Jack shrugged his shoulders at Davie and gave a rueful grin. Davie nodded, turned round carefully and carried on walking.

He continued walking slowly across the field, hampered by his arthritic knees he had to feel his way forward, making sure he was on a secure surface. Jack didn't dare go and help him in case his strange life force disturbed whatever he was feeling. Jack didn't understand how dowsing worked, but he knew it did and Davie was the best he had ever seen.

After about 15 minutes Owen came to stand by Jack, hunched and watchful. Jack glanced at him, but Owen just stared forward and refused to make eye contact.

Davie was about a quarter of the way across the field when he gestured them to come over. His twig now pointing directly downwards.

Jack and Owen went to join him.

"You need to dig here. You will find the child under here. He is alive, unconscious but alive."

Looking down Owen couldn't see any disturbance to show that a helicopter had crash landed, but then there had been no sign of it anyway. What he did see however was the stick he had thrown earlier. It had landed on the exact spot Davie was pointing at, poking into the ground at a 30 degree angle. He looked up startled. "Oh come off it! I threw that stick, so you might as well have just picked the place it happened to land and we could have dug here hours ago.!"

"Yes you could" said Davie.. "Your dead energy on the stick is attracted to the place where there is most living energy. Young energy. So when you threw it, it landed where the child is buried. You should have trusted your instincts, this could have been sorted out much sooner if you only trusted your instincts. That's the trouble with all you science types. You crush your instincts."

Owen threw his hands up in the air, as if to say "I give in!" and went off to get spades from the SUV.

Half an hour later he and Jack had dug down about three feet. Jack was sweating even in the cold air and had stripped to his white T. Davie sat in the SUV to keep warm.

Owen had to dig in gloves to protect his skin. He had nearly dug through his foot, but fortunately the spade glanced off his leather trainers.


	5. Digging

Digging

Jack's spade struck something. He bent down to brush away the earth. There was a clear glass like area, through it a gentle blue light glowed. He signalled to Owen and they both started to clear away the earth. They started to reveal a dome several metres across. Jack decided to call in Tosh, Gwen and Ianto, and they arrived along with Rhys. Even with all of them digging and clearing it was nearly 9 am before the top of the dome was clear, going down about a foot all around.

The morning sun reflected off the domed surface, making the blue light within seem very pale. It was clear, but they couldn't see inside because of the dazzle.

Tosh scanned it. "It is definitely the source of the transmission. I am able to analyse it and may be able to transmit a reply"

She got out her laptop and became busy on it for a good ten minutes. Then she nodded and hit enter.

They all waited. After a few minutes they started fidgeting. Davie came over to join them and Tosh started working on her keyboard again.

Suddenly the earth around the dome started to shift, and fall. Gradually with a sucking and cracking sound the dome began to rise out of the earth. The blue light began to pulse alternately with purple. A low hum emanated from it, a rather soothing gentle sound.

The dome hovered a few feet off the ground. It reminded Owen of the inflatable balls that humans sometimes played in, rolling down hills. Except that this one was huge. Huge enough to contain the remains of the six seater helicopter, and an ovoid shape, bronze coloured with dimples all over it. The ovoid appeared to have inserted itself through the windscreen of the helicopter without cracking it, passed through the seats and the humans sitting in them and then the end of it just passed through the back wall of the cockpit. Peter Jenkins and Marcus Smith had been cut in half by the structure. There was no blood, but half their bodies were in the helicopter and half were inside the ovoid. They were not moving or breathing, so were presumably dead. There was no sign of the child, but over the loud speaker Tosh had switched on they could hear it beginning to wake up and start to cry.

"Bloody hell" said Rhys, "What do we do now?"

"The dome is actually a force field protecting the structures inside" Said Tosh. "I am receiving information from inside the ovoid in binary.......it is instructions on how to switch off the field and access the ovoid ship …....Jack I think there is something else alive in there apart from the child!"

"What do we have to do Tosh?"

"Would you believe just open the door?"

"What?"

"The instructions say that there is a door in the dome and all we have to do is open it."

They started circling the dome looking for a door. Reaching out and touching it, running their hands over it, looking for a handle, key, anything that might let them in.

Davie started to help. Because of the sun he put his tinted Glaucoma specs on. These stopped part of the light spectrum hitting his retina, and he could suddenly see the door handle. A rather old fashioned bronze ring, like a torque collar. He reached out and turned it. The dome disappeared and the helicopter and Ovoid gently eased down onto the ploughed earth.

The part of the ovoid that was outside the helicopter started to pulse blue and then flipped open with a ping! The sound of crying grew louder.


	6. Found

Chapter 5

They all crowded forward, until Jack shouted, "Back all of you! Step back!"

He had drawn his gun. "I know we are all anxious about the kid but we must take the usual precautions, Tosh are there any toxins or forces we should know about?"

"No Jack all clear."

Jack walked forward and looked into the Ovoid.

Inside was an alien, a single eye blinked slowly at Jack. The Alien was holding the small boy in two appendages, whilst another pressed frantically on a round bump in the wall.

"He is talking to us Jack, in binary." said Tosh. "Don't shoot........I am sorry about the accident, I materialised too soon ….......I think the small one is unhurt, but the noise he makes is very annoying. Possibly it needs food. Can you help it? …........Also please help me, I have been stuck here all night and I really need to.........I think it says pee!"

They all crowded round, laughing with relief. Rhys lifted out the little boy and handed him to Gwen, smiling at her, they had been talking about having kids only last night. Gwen attempted to soothe the child, and walked him over to the SUV followed by Owen, who would give him a medical. Ianto had bought hot chocolate in a flask and they gave him some, which he drank greedily.

Jack and Ianto turned to help the Alien out of the spacecraft. He was trapped by the bodies of the humans. As they tried to pull him free, Ianto realised that Peter Jenkin's left arm was poking through the Alien's abdomen. The Alien looked down, and blinked at them in shock.

An orifice opened in his chest area and a low pitched hum emanated from it, growing louder and louder.

Jack call Owen over to see if he could help, but there was nothing they could do. The alien started to thump the red button repeatedly, and then started thrashing around with his other appendages. He was very distressed and the hum was becoming painful to their ears. He appeared to start glowing and the purple and blue lights started up again.

"Stand back" yelled Jack, lifting Davie off his feet and swinging him away. They all ran away from the space ship just as it tried to fly off, unfortunately it couldn't free itself from the helicopter, the two machines rocked back and forth, the Ovoid trying to tear itself free. Metal screamed and pieces of the helicopter blades broke away and scrunched into the ground, missing Ianto by inches. The groans of the metal increased and finally the Ovoid freed itself – by splintering into a million atoms that sparkled briefly blue and purple across the field. The helicopter rocked twice and rested lopsided on the ground.

The team picked themselves up. There was no sign of the alien or the Ovoid. Inside the helicopter the bodies of Peter Jenkins and Marcus Smith lay in four pieces, split down the middle like anatomy illustrations. Rhys threw up. Gwen held tight to little Peter holding his head against her shoulder. Poor mite, what a horrible way to lose your Father.

Tosh was walking around the field picking up the bits of her kit that she had dropped when she ran.

Owen was on his knees beside a groaning Davie. He helped him up and they walked over to the SUV.


	7. After

After

Peter was handed over to social services to return to his mother who was travelling down from Glasgow by car. Davie returned to his home after being given a slap up meal at the local pub. Zelma had come too. The effects of Jack's kiss was still in effect and Davie enjoyed a gentle flirtation with her and Tosh. Gwen and Rhys went home and talked some more about kids.

Owen hadn't come, he was doing some tests on samples taken from the bodies. He wanted to understand how the molecular structure had been altered by the materialisation of the space ship. Jack had said that the Alien had probably been trying to use the rift as a short cut by bouncing off a pan dimensional shift. Owen thought he was probably making this up and had no more idea than Owen did about what had happened. He did agree however that the Alien was probably quite a decent being, but possibly just a bit thick and panicky.

He was also planning to get to know Davie a bit more – if he could be bothered.

Ianto had as usual taken care of the clean up of the scene. It had been difficult to make the bodies look like they had been in a crash, given the surgical precision with which they had been split apart, but with a bit of guidance from Owen and some rather gross butchery he had managed it. Sometimes he thought working for Torchwood was more like being in a bad horror movie than real life. He had showered, but found it hard to get the smell of human flesh out of his nose. He certainly hadn't felt like eating. He was outside the Hub, leaning on the railings by the bay, trying to let the sea view calm him. He had seen relaxation tapes of waves, but the sound of the water lapping at the sea wall was actually mildly irritating. He sighed and stood up straight. As he did so Jack placed his hand over his as it rested on the rail. Ianto looked up. He didn't know that his pain and distress showed so clearly in his face, but Jack took one look and pulled him close, holding him gently, stroking his hair. At first Ianto stood rigid. He just wasn't prepared to let go of his anguish and tiredness, then he sighed again and gave in to the comfort of Jack's arms.


End file.
